18 Things Teenagers Can Do BEFORE They Are Allowed To Vote In Elections

My list-based commentary article for Buzzfeed (8 February 2014) on the many rights and responsibilities young people acquire before the right to vote. It would be circular logic to suggest having some rights at 16 means the right to vote must come in at 16 too, but it is certainly very, very odd that something as risk-free as casting a vote has a higher age restriction than some of these.

1. Leave home

You can leave home at 16 without your parent or guardian’s permission. You can even emigrate at 17. Perhaps to Austria or Argentina, where 16 year olds have already been granted the right to vote.

2. Pay tax

“No taxation without representation,” the American revolutionaries told us in the 1700s. Three centuries later we still haven’t learned. 16 year olds in work will pay tax and national insurance, without the opportunity to vote for those who spend it.